The very own exe name already start with one “exclusive” aspect.

The exec is named ConanSandbox. It denotes one of the first differences from almost all games people might be thinking when they suggest these and other “end game content” “chips” from other games.

In game development Sandbox is the opposite of Theme Park. They are two specific and opposed design choices.

Imagine a sandbox game like a big playground where you’re handed a bucket and spade. You can build sandcastles, dig moats, or just throw sand in the air if that’s what you’re into. The game doesn’t really guide you on what to do; it’s all about freedom and creativity. You make your own fun. Now, on the other side, you’ve got theme park games. These are more like going to an amusement park with set rides and attractions. Sure, you can choose which ride to go on, but you’re not about to change how the roller coaster functions. Everything is designed for a specific experience, and you’re there to enjoy what’s been prepared for you.

From there you already see how “end game content” as defined pertains to ONE genre defining characteristic, not the other. One example of this is that besides very little in terms of progression, which can be achieved “anyway” you have at your disposal from the start, nothing divides the end game from the start game in Conan Exiles, as it is a sandbox game. While games that hinder your progress by a measure of what you CANT do, railing you like in a theme park, you have several systems designed to keep you in the rail, such as the one OP proposes. It does not belong here.

So let’s stick with our playground and amusement park analogies. In a theme park game, everyone’s riding the same roller coasters, right? You’ve got set rules, clear objectives, and similar challenges. This makes it easier to compare scores or times, like timing how fast someone can get through a haunted house without chickening out. It’s basically designed to measure everyone with the same yardstick.

In a sandbox game, though, you’re doing your own thing. Maybe you’re building an epic sandcastle, or perhaps you’re digging to see how deep you can go. Since everyone’s playing the game differently, it’s kinda like comparing apples to oranges if you try to put those activities on a leaderboard. It’s tough to say who’s “better” when people have different goals and are doing entirely different things.

Got a good chunk of text so I filter who will reach this point, sort of.

That takes out MOBA, as all MOBAs must be theme park. Cant say a MOBA is Sandbox. But you do have Sandbox MMORPGs right ? The MMORPG exclusion is about another facet of this game, not exactly the MORPG specifically, but the first M. This is not a Massive Online Game. While it OFFERS Official servers, this is not the main aim or the main public of the game. Any way you can access this information, you are faced with the suspicion that most players are in Solo, Co-Op or Private Servers. Be it in a almost flawed logic that Official servers have much less population individually than most popular private servers, or that the game data suggests even more people Solo or Co-Op than play on servers, or the realization that the game systems select for solo play, whatever. Still, even if it is a mostly Multiplayer Online Game with RPG elements, it is still technically and designed NOT TO BE MASSIVELY ONLINE. And that drives us to think this game is a much more contained and personal experience in which what one person does or thinks about their own use of the game means very little in the overall game landscape to change certain aspects to create a “level playing field”. What if I want to get my thralls to “play the game for me” ? It is not like there is some leaderboard or some “proverbial yard stick” in which other people playing the same game are being measured at.

That is the aspect me, and many other people, seek out when playing this game, not a MOBA, not a MMORPG. Is having a personal and free experience we do whatever we want with. We dont want to join the “community” to measure our “rail speed”.

1 Like